


Bridges

by Paper0wl



Series: Rod and Shield [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, because one wasn't enough, comparing Lokis, no I'm not joking about this, not really a choice, paperwork is a terrible life's choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 04:48:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1731740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paper0wl/pseuds/Paper0wl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's always a papertrail and Kyria has to make sure hers looks like the cover-up says it should. In this case it's saying she shouldn't have anything to do with immovable objects from space, even though her former handler is calling for help on a case involving just that.</p><p>The paperwork also fails to mention the fact that her uncle probably knows more about what's going on in New Mexico than all of SHIELD. But he's not answering his phone.</p><p>He always was better at avoiding the past than her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bridges

**Author's Note:**

> I had to rewrite this no less than three times due to adjustments to the plot and/or timeline. I'm starting to understand why other people use betas. And it's a good thing I checked the MCU timeline, because three different movies overlap in the same week and I did not know that last week. Cheers.

A shrill ringing sounded from beneath the mess of paperwork. She shifted the pile of paperwork on protected assets to reveal her phone, and swore loudly as a file labeled _Milton_ spilled onto the floor. It didn’t help that the Milton file was personal and the empty tree was a mystery that nagged at her and none of it could actually be explained on the papers currently all over the floor. 

Joining a covert intelligence agency meant paperwork. Being ordered by the head of said agency to keep massive secrets off the books of said agency meant her paperwork had tripled. A year later and she was _still_ annoyed her work didn’t officially exist on record. 

“Lux,” she answered – and then swore as _Milligan_ slipped out of her fingers to join _Milton_. Yeah, that was a fun case too. Because covering up SHIELD’s interest in two former FBI suspects while trying to contain an ever growing pool of people aware of SHIELD’s interest in the supernatural was _always_ fun. 

Some days she really didn’t know how this was her life. 

“Could I ask you to review some files for me?” 

She managed not to grimace at the droll voice. Her relationship with her former handler had gotten especially confused after her department vanished like it never existed and Phil was _technically_ her handler again. And yet he was also sort of her equal after the Ninja Paperwork Shuffle. (For an event that never officially happened, it seemed that there were quite a number of unofficial nicknames.) Also, these days her cover in her own organization was Director’s problem-solver, so she was sort of above Coulson, too. 

Her life was complicated. 

“Good to hear from you, Phil. Glad to hear you’re having a great time in New Mexico on to _my_ case.” 

“It’s not your case.” 

“No, of course not, why would it be my case? I don’t do cases. I’m Fury’s fucking errand-girl and I drown in paperwork when I’m not out chasing things that my paperwork says don’t exist.” 

Her personal phone was personally encrypted and not even the Tech Twins had figured out a way to hack a Morningstar encryption. (Yet.) So she could bitch to Coulson about classified things and not fret about security. 

“Paperwork doesn’t lie,” Coulson said primly. 

“Neither does video,” she returned. “Nice flour throwing skills there, Phil.” 

“Thank you,” he replied without missing a beat. “The Tech Twins?” 

“Yeah. They try to find the best of Agent Aplomb when they take breaks from actual work. They have quite a collection going.” 

“Do they?” 

“They do. Actually, I’m pretty sure they collect any type of funny SHIELD video.” 

“Do they have the video from New Mexico?” 

“Not yet. Is that included in the stuff you want me to take a look at? The stuff I should be there to deal with if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s a high profile situation and I don’t have a proper department anymore?” Fury _axed_ it. With good reason, of course, and he still let her have semi-autonomy and whatever authority she needed, but it still smarted. And Coulson was one of the few she could talk about it with. 

(She also got to keep her secretary, but Bela’s tenure wasn’t exactly debatable. Crossroad deals had to be good for something after all, and some days Kyria thought she’d drown in paperwork without the assistance.) 

“I’m supposed to handle shit on my own,” she reminded him, “and was therefore under-qualified to deal with a space hammer. So while you and Clint traipsed out to New Mexico, I got cut out and buried under enough paperwork to kill a department of bureaucrats.” 

“The Director insisted and I could not convince him otherwise,” Coulson informed her. 

“Yes, I know, the WSC hates me.” 

They didn’t like her when Fury covered up the fact he brought Morningstar on as an agent, they liked her even less when Fury gave her a department and next to no oversight, and they had nothing but animosity for her now that NINJAT didn’t exist on paper and memory and word of mouth were the only links between Agent Lux of SHIELD and ghost-operative-with-a-trail-of-(slightly sulfuric)-bodies Morningstar. Not that the WSC knew she was Morningstar. They just knew she was Fury’s golden girl and just as infuriatingly obstinate as the director. 

“Hate is a strong word.” 

Only the paperwork saw her eye roll and it wasn’t telling anyone. 

“So you say,” she retorted. 

“Paperwork isn’t so terrible. You could have been undercover with a juvenile narcissist.” 

She snorted. “Nat’s been complaining to you too?” 

“Agent Romanoff would never complain about an assignment,” Phil contradicted primly. 

“No, of course not, she’s more the type to throw knives at a picture of Stark while staring pointedly at you.” 

“That . . . sounds like her, actually.” 

She felt a grin stretch at getting a reaction out of him. It quickly disappeared as her eyes fell upon the files still strewn across the floor. “Yeah, well, babysitting Stark at least sounds like it was more exciting than mountains and mountains of cover-up paperwork.” 

Silence on Phil’s end of the call. 

Kyria sighed. “What files do you want me to look at?” 

“I already sent them to you. There’s some technical specs and raw footage as well.” 

“I’ll let you know what I find.” 

***

An immovable hammer seemingly fallen from the sky and fused to the ground, bringing electrical anomalies in its wake. 

“No, I’m not joking about this,” she muttered to her paperwork. 

The video footage was particularly interesting, and not just the parts where the built blonde guy bowled through some of SHIELD’s best, although she took a certain vindictive pleasure in watching that and wondering how Jake would have fared in their stead. Also interesting was the way the guy – Donald Blake was the name on his faked identification – actually seemed to expect to be able to lift the hammer and looked broken by his inability to do so. 

But the surveillance footage she spent the most time on was the scene of so-called Dr. Blake talking to himself in the interrogation room. Because she could _almost_ see the shadow of another person in the room after Coulson was called away. 

It took Kyria the better part of an hour of staring cross-eyed at her computer before she could see the dark haired man clearly. He could have been mistaken for a SHIELD agent were it not for the whole _don’t-look-at-me_ thing he had going on. That part screamed _not human_. As did the part where it was another hour for her to be able to hear what he was saying. 

“Do you ever sleep?” she asked when Coulson promptly answered his phone at what normal people might consider an obscene hour. 

“Every other Thursday,” Phil deadpanned. 

She snorted. “That’s even less than me, and I can run on electricity.” 

“I know – the Director occasionally blames me for the electric bill. What did you find?” 

“How are you on Norse mythology?” 

“I’ve read up on a variety of mythos since you joined SHIELD. Why?” 

“Because unless otherworldly visitors are given to role-play, Mr. Plows-Through-SHIELD-Agents is an exiled Thor.” 

“How do you know this?” her former handler questioned intently. 

“Cause I’ve got a splitting migraine from convincing the video of him talking to an empty room to show me two people. Turns out Loki is Thor’s brother and he dropped in to say hi. The real Loki, not the winged one currently shadowing that damn writer. If he told the truth – which I’m not entirely sure about – Odin is dead and Thor is stuck here forever.” 

“What makes you think he’s lying?” 

“With Odin dead, and Thor gone, apparently he’s king now. Sounds like reason to keep Thor away from home. Plus, there’s all the trickster, lie-smith business in mythology – it can’t be _all_ Gabriel, however much he tries – so I’m not one for taking this guy at his word.” 

“And you’re saying Loki made it past our security unseen?” 

_“I_ had trouble seeing him on the video. Don’t ask me what sort of filters the cameras would need to find him.” 

“You work technological marvels – that no one has yet managed to recreate. The tech department has very mixed feeling about you,” Coulson noted in a slightly pained voice. 

“Is there anyone who doesn’t, Phil?” It didn’t help that no one explained _why_ Kyria was a programming whiz these days. She made computers her bitch by being Morningstar, but _officially_ , she _wasn’t._ Try explaining _that_ to little office drones without the clearance to be told she wasn’t quite human. 

“Did Loki do anything besides talk to . . . Thor?” he asked instead, neatly avoiding her semi-rhetorical question. 

“I haven’t watched the rest of the video under the migraine filter. Yet. I’ll let you know when I’m done with it.” 

“Thanks, Kyria.” 

She spent the next four hours combing through everything the various security cameras recorded for other appearances of Loki. He only appeared in one other place, and that was to try to lift the hammer. That wasn’t actually surprising, really. Everyone tried the hammer. Even Phil. 

She saved that particular clip to add to the collection Ash and Charlie had going, making a mental note to show it to Nat when she got back. If Kyria nursed a grudge over NINJAT’s dissolution, the Russian made her feelings known about her stint on Stark duty. 

The other video clip she bookmarked was more of a voiceover by Clint. “Do you want me to take him down, or would you rather send in more guys for him to beat up?” had her laughing in a manner that was sure to get her odd looks from the admin guys down the hall. (Of course her assistant had an almost disturbing skill at glaring, so maybe the admin guys wouldn’t bother her after all.) 

After letting Phil know Loki hadn’t done any spying or sabotage, Kyria placed another call, even more encrypted than her communiques with Phil or her hunter contacts. While her brand of encrypted calls was untappable and untraceable, she suspected this was one number that didn’t actually exist. 

It was a less than subtle number, even by a faux-trickster’s flagrant disregard of standards. And since she was probably the only one to have it, he could at least leave a _message_ to signify voicemail, rather than just a particularly obnoxious beep. Sometimes she wondered why she bothered to put up with his antics. 

“You’re still an asshole, but I thought you should know that you namesake’s around. Plus Mjolnir and a depowered Thor. I smell politics and power-plays, but I imagine you know more about what to expect than me. Watch yourself. Also, if you could keep me posted on what’s going on with Raph, I’d appreciate it.” 

Because it had been a year now and she rather wanted to know if she was going to have to watch for angels more than usual. Sure he was an archangel, but he was also doing a good job of avoiding her. Hence, still an asshole. 

Next, she called Bobby, and then Ellen, and let them know (again) that SHIELD was handling the New Mexico situation. (Even if she was only peripherally involved.) 

Hanging up, Kyria blearily eyed her stacks of requisitions, requests, reports and other required paperwork. She went to the gym to work off her headache instead. 

She was still there when Coulson called to tell her that Thor’s exile ended after Loki sent a giant robot to kill everyone. Thor killed the robot and went back to Asgard to deal with his brother. 

“We could have used your assistance when attempting to deal with the robot,” he informed her in the particularly bland tone that signified internal grimacing. 

“It seems to be a busy week for everyone,” she replied, masterfully avoiding telling him “I told you so.” 

***

Her Loki didn’t call back, but then, she hadn’t really expected him to. If and when he did call, it would probably be all of five minutes before a sanctimonious prick showed up to kill the “Morningstar Abomination.” It was also possible he’d call while she was cleaning up after such an occurrence. 

Come to think of it, that was more his sort of timing. 

Which was why she had more reliable contacts, like Bobby and Ellen and Chuck. Although if she was considering Chuck reliable, she had clearly been working too long. Even working with a Purgatory not-monster, the prophet seemed to have a few screws loose. 

Still, according to Eleanor, he was doing better, so maybe that was an unfair description. Apparently knowing why he got migraines and wrote about weird shit and getting two supernatural babysitters reduced his alcohol consumption. He even had a girlfriend and everything. 

Of course, said girlfriend was a slightly obsessed fan of his books who wrote creepy things about the characters even after she’d found out they were real people, so Kyria figured she would stick with calling him unreliable.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going off this timeline: http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe.  
> Apparently all the recent stuff happened a year before it was released. (Except for those overlapping movies.) The Supernatural timeline isn't quite as nailed down, so I'm using the date it aired as an approximate place on the calendar.
> 
> All that means that next up is the Avengers. (Because when you take out the angel-related events and their consequences, most of Season 6 goes *poof*.)


End file.
